Chapter Seven: Where You Belong - Part One

 

 

 

I watched her walk away and into the bedroom. I had wanted to tell her for over a year how I felt about her but something was always holding me back; my friendship with Johnny, her hurting from their breakup, fear of how she would respond. I sure had never imagined telling her under the circumstances that had just happened.

She thought I disliked her? She felt unwanted because of me? The thought made my heart break. I should have handled the whole situation differently. I can’t imagine how but anything would have been better than how I’ve made her feel.

How could I have been so stupid! I have treated her so horribly and somehow thought that our friendship wouldn’t be affected. I’ve messed up big time. I did what, at the time, seemed like the right thing to do. Straight from the handbook of guy friendship; never let a girl come between you and your friendship.

That made me think of Johnny and I got irritated. Until Amanda told me about what happened between her and Johnny, I didn’t have much of an idea what their relationship was really like. As bad as I had treated her, I was still ticked off at how Johnny had treated her.

He had her! He had a chance to tell her how he felt about her and didn’t. And then he asked her to drop her career and follow him around the world?! You don’t ask someone to do that without at least telling them you love them! No wonder she’s been hurting about their breakup for so long. How could Johnny have acted that way? Then I realized that no matter how badly I thought Johnny had acted, it was nothing compared to what I had done.

 

I had felt so bad watching how she suffered after their breakup. I never once imagined that some of that pain was caused from her living here or from how I had treated her. I thought back to several weeks ago when she had told me she was thinking about moving away.

I can’t let that happen. I don’t know what I have to do but I at least have to show her how she’s welcome here. I may have messed up any chance I had at a friendship or relationship with her, but I can at least try to help her realize what a great place Appaloosa Plains is.

I sat on the couch most of the night trying to think of what I could do. I needed to get in touch with some people to help me. A ray of sunlight interrupted my thoughts and I looked at the clock.It was morning already and I had things to do.

I took a shower and changed clothes. Thankfully, I didn’t have to work so I could put some of my plan into action. I headed into the kitchen and started making waffles. I had never been the greatest cook but I thought it was the least I could do for her. As the waffles started cooking in the oven, I started smelling smoke. I tried to wave the smoke away from the detector to keep the fire alarm from sounding. It was too late. The sound of the alarm was deafening. I tried to wave a towel in front of the detector while trying to cover my ears.

“What happened?”

I turned around and Amanda was standing there in her pajamas.

“I was trying to make waffles and accidently set the alarm off. Sorry if I woke you up.” I could tell by looking at her that she hadn’t gotten much sleep.

“That’s how I set my oven on fire. Either we both need better ovens or we just need to stay away from making waffles.”

“They actually didn’t get burned. Do you want some?”

She got an unsure look on her face.

“Come on. You need to eat, and like I said, at least they’re not burnt.”

She quietly walked over to the counter and picked up a plate. She placed a waffle on it and walked to the dining table. I got myself a waffle and followed her into the dining room. We sat eating in silence for several minutes before she spoke again.

“I think it might be a better if I stayed somewhere else.”

“Where else would you stay?”

“I could always stay with one of my sisters. I’m sure one of them wouldn’t mind me staying with them."

 

“But wouldn’t that mean you would have to take a leave of absence from your job? Do any of your sisters live close enough for you to keep working?”

“No, I would have to take a leave of absence. It might be good for me. I’d have a chance to think about things and reevaluate what I want to do.”

If she leaves now she may never come back.

“Amanda, there’s nothing that I could ever do that can make up for how I made you feel. You were right. I treated you horribly and it doesn’t really matter what the reason was, I shouldn’t have done it. I’m so sorry that you don’t feel like you belong here. I know I don’t deserve a second chance, but I would like very much to show you what initially made me fall in love with this town. I may not be able to take back what I did, but I can at least try to show you that Appaloosa Plains is where you belong.”

She had a skeptical look on her face. She thought about what I said for a while before answering.

“Alright, but only because I need a place to stay and I really don’t want to miss any work.”

“Great! I’ll clean up the dishes and you get ready.”

“What do you mean? What are we doing?”

 

“I told you I wanted to show you what made me fall in love with this town. I thought we’d get started this morning.”

She looked at me for a minute trying to decide what to do and then went to the bedroom to get ready. After about thirty minutes she came back out and said she was ready to go. I held the door open for her as we left. As she walked past me I caught scent of her perfume and for a split second relished the smell.

Snap out of it! You’re not on a date. You’re trying to keep her from leaving.